History of Meccano Eiffel Tower Models
| Two Eiffel Towers of 11.5 m were built at the request of the Meccano company. The parts were provided by Meccano Calais. | Many thanks to Marcel Pahin for providing this information. |
Construction of the first Eiffel tower of 11.50 m in 1989:
Michel Bréal was in charge, superintendent of the project and principal
manufacturer. Louis Fleck took part in the construction of this first Eiffel
tower, by building one or two feet.
All the remainder of
construction
having been the work of Michel Bréal. This
construction was modular. When all the modules were ready, Michel Bréal
helped by Louis Fleck, Bernard Garrigues and Bernard Fluet took the modules by
truck to Calais, where they were it was assembled.
This Eiffel Tower was assembled and displayed for the first
time at
Villepinte in France (Île de France), February 1, 1989. Then it was dismounted
(in modules) and was brought back to Calais.
It was again brought in
Paris at the time for the celebrations of July 14, 1989
(bicentenary of French revolution and centenary of its construction), where it
was displayed in Champs Élysées.
Then it was dismounted again in modules and brought back to Calais, where it was
stored in the building where all stocks of parts were. This building broke down
and crushed this Eiffel tower, which was flame-cut
leaving heaps of debris that took numerous
vacuum cleaner bags to pick it up.
Construction of the second Eiffel tower of 11.50 m in 1990-91 :
The Meccano company made a decision to build a second Eiffel Tower.
This second Eiffel Tower was entirely built by Louis Fleck who took as a
starting point the construction that Michel Bréal in 1989 had made. Many
photographs having been taken at the time, made it possible to build this second
Eiffel tower identical to the first one.
This one was displayed for the first time at the skating rink of
Central Park in
New York in 1991. It was presented as an Erector construction. It remained
in New York for a while and ended up being purchased by SciTrek, The Science and
Technology Museum of Georgia, located in Atlanta.
A photograph of the second Eiffel tower is on the cover of Constructor Quarterly
December 1993 (number 22).
Below, Image of the first Eiffel tower on the "Champs Élysées" in Paris